Many of the rivers in Virginia hold very large musky that offer exciting musky fishing with fly rods. For example, both the North Fork of the Shenandoah River and the South Fork of the Shenandoah River hold good numbers of musky that can be reached by either wading and floating. Just stop in and I’ll be glad to show you these areas.
A great deal of the success one can experience in musky fishing relies on selecting the proper rods, reels, lines, leaders and flies before heading to the rivers.
I like a powerful 10-weight 9ft rod, a reel with a strong drag and enough capacity to hold 100 yards of 20lb backing. I like a 45 inch leader with a 30 inch 50lb test butt section which has a 15 inch 55lb test wire tippet with a quick change fly snap on the end. There are two fly lines I like for musky fishing. The Scientific Anglers Sonar Sink 30 Clear 350 grain line has a 30 foot head that sinks at 1.25 ips with an intermediate sinking running line. This line is ideal for fishing where there are medium currents in water up to 4 feet deep. However, where there are fast currents or the water is over 4 feet deep I like the Scientific Anglers Sonar Sink 30 Warm 350 grain line which has a 30 foot head which sinks at 4 to 8 ips with an intermediate sinking running line. This line sinks quickly enabling us to swim our flies deeply.
We carry many excellent musky flies, some of which are 8 inches long. However, our fisheries biologist tell us that suckers are a very important bait-fish in the diet of the musky. The Wee Broonie Musky Fly at 5 inches long is an excellent match for the yellow sucker and the Joe’s Flathead Shad Musky Fly at 8 inches long is a good match for the hog suckers.
Here are a few angling tactics which I believe are important when fishing for musky. When you get a strike set the hook solidly by using a powerful line-hand strike simultaneously with strong rod-lifting motion. For good insurance, hit him a second time in the same way.—Once you have him hooked recover all of the slack line below the stripping guide and crank all of this onto the reel quickly. Otherwise he may make a powerful run and break you off as the line becomes wrapped around something in the boat or the rod butt extension.—When landing your musky use strong, long forceps such as Dr. Slick Bullet Head Pliers to remove the fly from his jaw. I well remember shredding by fingers and thumb on my first trip to Canada when I tried this bare-handed.
Check out our Musky Fly Selection!
Visit our fly shop at:
121 S. Main St, Edinburg VA 22824
Email info@murraysflyshop.com
www.murraysflyshop.com
Ph 540-984-4212